Maximum Ride: The Fugitives
Summary of Series Maximum Ride: The Fugitives is a young adult series by the famous adult fiction author James Patterson. Fugitives is the first mini series that tells the beginning of the stories of the Flock. Maximum Ride: The Protectors is it's follow up mini series. Summary of Books The Angel Experiment The first book in James Patterson's Maximum Ride series focuses around the rescue of Angel (the sister of the youngest boy in the group Gazzy a.k.a the Gasman) , the youngest member of the Flock. The Flock is safe in the mountains until the day a pack of Erasers, cruel and bloodthirsty, half-wolf half-men, appear out of nowhere and kidnap Angel. The Flock must return to the dreaded School, a horrifying place that holds terrible memories of their past, to rescue Angel. Max is deeply confused when she finds out that Jeb Batchelder, the kindhearted, parental figure who looked after them and rescued them from the school,and then supposedly died, has reappeared as an evil figure, and that Ari, Jeb Batchelder's son, has become an Eraser. While Max is thrown into struggles of looking after all of her Flock, saving Angel from the evil clutches of the white-coats, and realizing how complicated love can be, she is trying to figure out why she has a mysterious voice inside her head that no one else can hear, one that is telling her that her mission is to save the world. School's Out- Forever 'After being reunited with Angel and adding a Scottish Terrier named Total to their group, the second book starts with the Flock heading off to look for their parents through papers they found in an underground lab called the Institute for Higher Living. Max is still reeling from Jeb's enigmatic scream over his dying son that Ari was her brother. On the way they run into flying Erasers (with patched on wings), one turning out to be back-from-the-dead Ari, leaving Fang to fighting for his life and suffering injuries enough to be treated at a hospital. Anne Walker, an FBI agent who turns into a motherly figure of sorts, offers her home for residence while Fang recovers, and the flock agrees. What they didn't expect was to get enrolled into a real school with teachers, students, and classes. As if that wasn't enough, Total develops into a talking dog, which, of course, just adds to all the mystery. But all the people surrounding the Flock may not be who they claim. Max becomes instantly jealous after spotting Fang kissing a red-haired girl named Lissa (who Max calls The Red Haired Wonder). The principal, in reality, works for the Institute and almost traps the flock at the school, only to end up with failure. Later, Max is kidnapped and replaced with a clone Max, one that has her appearance but acts differently. In the end, a fight will leave only one Max standing as Jeb makes it clear that there can be only one Max.' Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports In the third installment, Max is faced with the task of saving the world from the Itex corporation and the evil Director - the company behind the School - who want to terminate all recombinant species and cut the population of earth by half. While all this is happening Fang is trying to persuade Max to find a permanent home where they can just live. The Erasers were some of the first to be destroyed and have been replaced with new threat of Flyboys (robotic-like Erasers that can fly). Further issues arise when Max invites Ari - the single remaining Eraser- to join the group after escaping from the School again, leaving Fang and half of the Flock to split off in protest. Max becomes the leader of one group (Angel, Nudge, and Ari) and Fang the leader of the second, Iggy and The Gasman. In the end, Ari dies, and with all the other crazy things happening, Max finally finds out who her parents are, which turns out to be a good and bad thing. She also begins to realize a feeling for Fang. Characters Maximum Ride (Max Maximum Ride, better known to her flock as 'Max', is 14 years old (turned fifteen in Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel) and is the oldest of the avian-human hybrids and the leader of the Flock. Max's hair is (quote from 'Fang') "mostly brown but had streaks of dark red and even a little blond." or, in Saving the world and Other extreme sports, blond, as said by Jeb and herself, quote "Well, I do have blond hair", but this is under much controversy. She has brown eyes and gills when she's underwater. Her special powers are flying up to 250 hundred miles per hour when flying and also breathing underwater (Max: A Maximum Ride Novel). She also has a Voice in her head, aptly named "The Voice", that gives her advice, usually cryptic. Another talent she has is that sometimes she can see visions of things like the institution Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. Fang Fang, is 14 years old (turns 15 in Fang) and is commonly the second in command of the Flock. He is able to virtually disappear,but he has to stay perfectly still. Fang is commonly described as a strong, tall, dark hair, eyes, and wings, he's smart, protective, loving, doesn't much show his true feelings, silent, and sometimes a very romantic person, having had romantic relationships with the Red Haired Wonder, who occurs once in School's Out Forever. Iggy Iggy is the sarcastic member of the flock and is also 14 (turned 15 in Fang) but is 2 months younger than Fang and 6 months younger than Max. He is blind due to the lab people trying to enhance his night vision when he was young, but Iggy can see if his surroundings are white. He has strawberry blond hair and he's a bomb maniac. His powers include being able to "feel" colors and being able to identify anyone by feeling their fingerprints. Despite him being blind, the Flock often leave things that take a lot of precision or detail to him, such as cooking or doctoring. He and Gazzy also have a habit of building bombs out of most anything, and they are best friends. Nudge Nudge is an eleven-year-old (who turns twelve in Fang) of African descent. She finds out that her real name was Monique as a baby and she loves to constantly chatter. Nudge can hack into computers with her ability to sense leftover emotions and can also draw metal to her by will. Nudge is described as Max's best supporter, the peace-maker, etc. Nudge also has a huge thing for fashion, in the books she is constantly trying to get more stuff that is "cool". The Gasman (Gazzy) Gazzy is 8-years-old (Turned 9 in Fang). He is very gassy because he has always had a weird digestive system. Iggy is his best friend and partner in crime. They like to build bombs together. He has blond hair and blue eyes like his sister Angel who he is somewhat protective of. One of his "powers" is an ability to make a green cloud of gas that will fill an entire room and stink so bad that it can make people pass out. Gazzy also has the ability to mimic voices which he usually uses to play pranks on members of the flock, such as in Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. Angel Angel is the Gasman's blood sibling.She has blue eyes and curly blond hair. She obtains seemingly random powers at random times such as; breathing underwater, talking to fish, being able to read minds, being able to control minds, being able to not be pressurized in deep water that would crush a normal human, and changing her appearance. Angel claims to be seven years old. Angel, though as innocent as she may look, is actually very dangerous and intelligent. Angel's ability allows her control peoples' minds to her will, and she is constantly trying to take leadership of the Flock. Angel believes that she is the strongest out of the Flock. She also has a voice in her head but does not tell the Flock until "Fang". Total Total is a black dog that was saved from the Institute by Angel at the end of The Angel Experiment. he is described to have the characteristics of a Scottish-terrier. In "School's Out––Forever", it is discovered that he has the ability to talk. He is usually the funny one in the flock, although at sometimes it is unwanted. Jeb Batchelder Jeb Batchelder is a brilliant scientist. He used to work at the School where the Flock was experimented on. He rescued the Flock and brought them into the mountains, where he raised them as his children for 2 years. Then Jeb disappeared, leaving the Flock very distressed and had to survive on their own in refuge for another 4 years. In The Angel Experiment, the flock discovers Jeb back at the School when they were captured. This originally led to Flock to believe he was a traitor. Erasers The half human half wolf Erasers were bred by the School to be guards, but their bigger mission now involved hunting the flock. They have the ability to morph into wolves, have superhuman strength, and eventually gain wings that they have little experience with. Jeb's son, Ari, becomes an Eraser before the story is told, and is the last real eraser to die. Ella Martinez Dr. Martinez About the Author James Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author of thriller novels, largely known for his series about American psychologist Alex Cross. Patterson also wrote the Michael Bennett, Women's Murder Club, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, and Witch & Wizard series, as well as many stand-alone thrillers, nonfiction and romance novels. Other Links *Maximum Ride Official Website *Maximum Ride book page at James Patterson Official Website *Maximum Ride at the Internet Movie Database *Maximum Ride User Based Casting